Did you inherit any badassity?

[Hedge_87]

So we have a snow day here and it's a relatively slow day at work. I've allowed my mind to wonder a bit and was thinking back to my childhood. I didn't really see it then but my parents where pretty bad ass when I was growing up and it has really helped me see money and life for what it is. For starters any trips we ever took as a kid always involved a cooler full of food so we didn't have to waste money eating out all the time. My dad all but built the house I grew up in. They bought an old farm house with no running water or electricity and completely renovated it with the help of my uncles and grandfather. I really wish I would have been older when they did it though so I could have helped more. Most of our entertainment revolved around the outdoors. We spent many summer night playing sports in the yard while grilling and picnicking (sometimes the basketball games would get a little intense and the food would suffer lol) They also have never owned a new vehicle and until last year their newest one was a 97 model. They made me work through summers and evenings in high school which I didn't appreciate then but the lessons learned while doing it where priceless. I also had to pay my own way through school which made me try a lot harder than if I wouldn't had to worry about it. I'm sure I will think of more but just thought I would share this little insight. I sure hope if I am lucky enough to have kids I can pass as much good on to my kids as they have me.

[Miss Growing Green]

Wow, sounds like an awesome childhood! Since you're on these forums, sounds like you've done pretty well in following in their footsteps.

I definitely inherited my badassity, but in a completely different way than you.  Both of my parents are terrible with money and did not model good spending or living habits for me as a child.  Consequently, I never learned any positive financial lessons from them or what "to do", only what not to.

However, I've always had a natural proclivity for the mustachian lifestyle, and investing and real estate endeavors have always been second nature to me, and something I really enjoy pursuing.  My paternal grandparents (especially my grandma) were the same way- they lived through the depression and started out poor, but became self-made multimillionaires by smart investing and living like Mr. MM before it was cool :)
Unfortunately, my grandma died before I could really absorb much wisdom from her (i was just a kid), but I'm convinced I inherited that part of myself from her.  The rest of the family says I even share her speaking style and mannerisms.
... Kind of interesting, the whole nurture vs. nature thing.

[soccerluvof4]

I grew up in a situation too where my parents seemed to spend more time making ends meet. My Dad was a very hard worker but he wasn't a smart worker. At 15 he told me if i wanted clothes for school to get a job and buy them and I was not allowed to play sports he wanted us to work. My mom would meet me on the corner to take me to my basketball games.  So it was pretty much going to school just enough to graduate and then work and alot of times it was with my dad remodeling night clubs after close on school nights. At the end of the day i learned how to be a hard worker but realized that wasnt enough I had to be smart about it. I have no regrets and wouldn't change that aspect of my childhood though many others. But there was no "Lazy" in our house hold unfortunately like so many kids today.

[sleepyguy]

To be honest although we didn't have a lot of money growing up, my parents were a good example of how NOT to manage finances, lol.

Taking $10-15k vacation by taking LOC on house.  Buying $5k watches for no reason, I personally think jewellery is one if not the worst value for items... much rather donate $5k then spend $5k on a watch.  Spending $50k on an addition when there was still over $200k mortgage on the house... list goes on and on.

These traits have passed onto my brothers and sisters and I'm glad I've broken those habits sooner rather than later.

[PeachFuzzInVA]

My parents were pretty anti-mustachian, but my dad, however, is likely the most mechanically inclined person I've ever met and I've been working in the auto industry since 1997. I inherited just enough of his natural ability and absorbed just enough of his knowledge in his area of expertise that I've managed to make a pretty comfortable living for myself.

[pachnik]

Unfortunately, I did not inherit my parents' badassity.  I dearly wish that I had and I guess, via MMM, I am coming home to it.

My parents came to Canada in the 1960's from Eastern Europe.  In their culture at the time, the husband worked outside the home and earned the money while the wife worked inside the home and hung onto the money.  My mother did an excellent job of saving money and now they are reaping the benefits. 

One day, a few months after I found MMM and started putting the information to use in my life, I told my mom about some MMM topics - frugality, really thinking about how you are spending your money and learning about investments.  She looked at me and said, well, doesn't everyone do this? 

[Annamal]

My parents and grandparents are both pretty mustachian.

I remember devouring the millionaire next door when I was about 15 and I'm pretty sure one of my parents would have handed it to me.

[NV Teacher]

Definitely yes.  My parents raised eight kids on next to nothing.  My dad was a farmer at heart but had to work off the farm as a finish carpenter to keep everything going.  We raised almost all our own food between the garden and animals.  We bottled what we raised to get us through the winter and we grew crops that we harvested to feed the livestock through the winters.  Every fall my dad went hunting and game was a regular item on our dinner table.  My mother sewed most our clothes.  I don't remember ever having a store bought dress until I went to high school.  She also made four loaves of bread every day Monday thru Friday.  She took Saturday and Sunday off from bread making.  My parents never had debt.  They lived with my grandparents for years while my dad built our house.  He always said that he was on the "pay as you go" plan.  If we didn't have the money for it we didn't do it.  Our entertainment was going to the mountains to maintain the reservoirs and canals that brought irrigation water into the valley.  We'd pack a lunch, climb in the back of the pickup truck, and head up into the hills.   My dad could fix almost anything and what he couldn't do he'd bartered with people that wanted him to do carpentry work.  My mother worked until she had baby number five and then went back to work ten years later when number eight was five.  They taught us to work hard, live within our means, be kind, help others, and have fun.  All of us realize how blessed we have been to be raised by such good steady decent hardworking people.

[Kaminoge]

Definitely. My upbringing was very Mustachian. I clearly remember driving through a "poor" part of town one day and my dad explaining that they had more "stuff" than us not because they had more money but rather because they bought things on hire purchase. My childhood was all about fixing things (rather than buying new), taking food where ever you went (because that bought stuff is a waste of money), second hand clothes and saving when you really wanted something rather than buying it straight away.

I took to it like a duck to water. I loved budgeting as a kid - a little notebook full of columns of figures. I love getting a bargain and always thought 2nd hand was better than new.

However my brother (who is less than 2 years younger so had pretty much exactly the same upbringing as me) could be a poster boy for anti-mustachianism. And he's always been like that.

(I should also point out that my childhood was pretty cool - for example my first car (when I was 12) was an old beach buggy my brother and I found dumped out in the bush. Dad found someone selling a seized up engine and bought it for us, fixed it up and got it going... we weren't deprived at all - we just learned you didn't need to spend money to have fun).

[happy]

Yes and no...we kind of did "min-max". My parents spent on some things of quality, that they thought had long lasting value. On other things they judged as "fripperies", they spent nothing. For example, when growing up we had to do "projects" at school, usually embellished by  cutting out appropriate pictures from magazines. But we never had magazines...mum thought they were mostly junk and not worth the money. Our second car was always old. I was sent to a private girls school to establish old school tie connections blah blah that back then meant something.  Mum went to a school mothers luncheon in her car, then an Austin A40 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_A40_Devon..like this in black. She got it from my grandfather.  It was mostly reliable but occasionally had a hissy fit. On this day it wouldn't start, so she crank started it (in her pearls, beehive and linen dress LOL).   Came home and complained about the kickback..she's 5 foot 1 and was less than 50kg then.

[boy_bye]

I inherited a decided lack of badassity from my upbringing. My mom died young, leaving my dad with 3 kids and a broken heart, and he struggled a lot, financially and emotionally.

I read recently about an experiment studying self-control in children. In this experiment, adults told the children that they would receive extra marshmallows for waiting to eat one in front of them ... but the extra ones never materialized (I.e., the adults didn't keep their promises). From that unkept promise onwards, most kids would always take the first marshmallow, never sitting and waiting for more to come in the future.

This really hit me, because there were a lot of unkept promises in my childhood. I don't harbor resentment because obviously my dad did the best he could, and he was a very loving guy ... But I would be lying if I didn't admit that it's been a very difficult struggle for me to learn the skill of delaying gratification. Some part of me just doesn't trust the concept, I think. I've made a lot of progress in my adult life but ... Yeah. No inherited badassity, at least not in the financial/work hard and be rewarded sense.

[reginna]

Definitely yes.  My parents raised eight kids on next to nothing.  My dad was a farmer at heart but had to work off the farm as a finish carpenter to keep everything going.  We raised almost all our own food between the garden and animals.  We bottled what we raised to get us through the winter and we grew crops that we harvested to feed the livestock through the winters.  Every fall my dad went hunting and game was a regular item on our dinner table.  My mother sewed most our clothes.  I don't remember ever having a store bought dress until I went to high school.  She also made four loaves of bread every day Monday thru Friday.  She took Saturday and Sunday off from bread making.  My parents never had debt.  They lived with my grandparents for years while my dad built our house.  He always said that he was on the "pay as you go" plan.  If we didn't have the money for it we didn't do it.  Our entertainment was going to the mountains to maintain the reservoirs and canals that brought irrigation water into the valley.  We'd pack a lunch, climb in the back of the pickup truck, and head up into the hills.   My dad could fix almost anything and what he couldn't do he'd bartered with people that wanted him to do carpentry work.  My mother worked until she had baby number five and then went back to work ten years later when number eight was five.  They taught us to work hard, live within our means, be kind, help others, and have fun.  All of us realize how blessed we have been to be raised by such good steady decent hardworking people.

Wow NV, what a wonderful childhood! 

[Hedge_87]

Dad also taught me something I thought was silly at the time but looking back it was business school 101. I would mow about 8 yards during the summer and I always had to buy the gas and "rent" his lawnmower for $5 on the days I mowed. This way I got a little lesson on managing expenses and found out pretty quick that I could do one yard a night and pay $40 bucks in "rental fees" or do 4 yards a night and pay only $10 in fees. Still sounds a little silly as I type it but it got me used minimizing expenses. Of course I had to mow the home place for room and board lol.

[rubybeth]

Definitely got a lot of good financial sense from my parents. They are frugal people, paid off their mortgage early, pay cash for cars, lived close to work, restaurants are a big treat, and my dad is big on DIY for car repairs and house maintenance. He designed and put in his own sprinkler system a few years ago, for example.

I remember getting my first "allowance" from him, as well. I was about age 5, and I really wanted a new book (go figure... I'm now a librarian) but had already gotten a new book that month (plus we frequently visited the library) so after we got home from the store, he handed me a $1 bill and basically said, "You'll get one of these each week from now on... you can decide what to do with it, but if you save it for for the next four weeks, you can buy that book." Whenever I wanted a new book/toy/game, I'd have to save for it myself, figuring out how many weeks it would take me, plus I could offer to do extra chores for an extra $.50 or so. I still basically do the same thing, except with spreadsheets and websites. :)

[hybrid]

My grandparents were children of The Depression (ages 19 and 17 in 1929) and I am sure that helped shape their views on money.  They paid off their modest but quite nice for the time home early, saved like crazy, were quite frugal, and yet they threw money at their five grandchildren's education after they were retired.  Granddaddy wasn't a savvy investor and preferred CDs, and they lived comfortably and modestly until they passed at ages 87 and 94.

My mother was always pretty conservative with her money as well.  My father passed when I was young so no idea there.  My lovely bride's parents were not Mustachian in the least.  They stayed within their means, but they lived very fully up to those means.

If my grandparents could see me now they would probably ask what took me so long!  I know Grandmother would be happy to see I learned how to can preserves (thank you Internets) later in life.  They grew up in simpler times and never felt the need for the things that are baked into the typical middle class lifestyle today.  They were good people, they would identify with what the folks on this forum are doing. 

[Gray Matter]

I'm another "yes and no" person.  They were really good about living within their means, teaching us about finance, and instilling the dangers of debt in us.  I went off the college with a healthy fear of credit cards and student loans.  They didn't spend money on "keeping up with the Joneses" and were not into status symbols.  My mom was very practical about her clothing and appearance--jeans, flannel shirts, etc.  No expensive shoes or purses or manicures or jewelry.  I knew enough at age 22 to ask my boyfriend (not husband) about his financial picture, debt load, and spending habits and knew what red flags to look for.  They talked very frankly about things that they considered a waste of money:  prom, flashy cars, big weddings, etc.  (They actually have a theory that there's an inverse relationship between the amount of money spent on a wedding and the quality of the marriage!)

But they also spent a lot of money on things like housing (always had fairly large houses, nicely decorated), cabins, eating out (though not at expensive restaurants), etc.  So not exactly frugal, but I would say they were intentional about where they spent their money and it was on things they valued.  And they were/are big into DIY.  But I've also seen them spend a lot of money on electronics, power tools, general household stuff, etc. 

I would say they were much better than the average American with money, but not to Mustachian levels.

[Bateaux]

I have my parents, grandparents and in laws to thank for learning the value of being frugal.  We grew almost all of our food growing both my family and my wife's family.  We didn't waste anything.   We were green and never knew it.

[horsepoor]

Yes and no.  We lived on a home-built sailboat for the first several years of my life without electricity or indoor plumbing.  It was pretty basic, and so I think it taught me what's really NEEDED to live, but it was a little too extreme and I sort of rebelled against it.  However, I'm very glad that my parents DIY'ed pretty much everything, so I learned to sew, paint, and fix things.  My dad once said that the biggest thing he got out of his MA in English was the ability to read about how to do something and understand it well enough to go forth and do that thing, whether it was tiling a bathroom or building a boat or whatever.  My parents always lived within their means, but tended to work less most of the time, rather than building up a big stash, so I'm not sure that the FI side of frugality ever really hit home for me.  There were times when foodstamps, foodbanks and charity from friends figured in to the picture, and I won't lie and say I didn't feel like an outcast at times for not having the right clothes or a nice house and all that.  It seemed more attractive instead to work full-time at a profession to have the money to spend.

[2527]

My dad grew up during the Depression lighting candles and praying the electricity wouldn't be cut off.  Got a nice union job in Detroit after the war.  Joined the skilled trades, became an engineer, taught himself stock market investing and a little real estate, and left an estate of about $2M after giving his 4 kids the gift tax max for years.   

[greaper007]

Yes and no, my parents lived well within their means, but my dad was making 6 figures by his early 30s in the mid 80s.    Thus living well within their means meant we still had a lot of luxury items like a pool, dinners out, vacations and my dad would occasionally blow money on gambling or bad investments.    Still, my parents rarely bought new cars or expensive clothes and they're both millionaires many times over now.

I don't know if it was bad ass though.   My sisters and I both had to graduate with large student debt loads because my parents got divorced when I was in school and didn't pay for a lot of our educations.    Not to say there isn't something to be said about paying your own way, but when you're dad has a salary above $300,000 you get locked out of a lot of federal student loans.    I had a hell of a time finding a job in college because everything was federal work study and I obviously didn't qualify.

[bluecollarmusician]

I have been very fortunate to have wonderful role models.

My maternal grandparents- who were very close growing up- were depression era folks whose families lost everything in the crash.  We lived in a rural area- Granddad worked 30 years in the public schools, all while farming on the side.  Grandma also taught some in between raising the 5 kids.  I will never forget the simple way it was described to me how he built up the farm; "Well son, he saved up his money and he bought some land, he worked the land and saved some money, and bought a little more land.  Then he worked that land, saved up a little money, and bought a little land."  Starting from nothing, and (never making more than a teacher's salary) he retired with his house and over 600 acres of prime farm land in VA.  (Valued anywhere from 3-15k per acre.)  Not counting the 800+ head of cattle, chicken houses, his house, etc.  Oddly he had relatively little in cash- he had his retirement check each month, and he never spent much.  At 100 years old, he still insisted on selecting his melon and grapefruit by squeezing them, and would only buy corn on sale in season.  It was unbelievable the level of frugality he maintained when there was clearly no need.  And he ate ice cream- a small bowl- every night- but only bought it on sale.  He would stock his freezer with it when it was 2 for 1.

My parents (mom, but also dad) taught me a similar work /frugal ethic.  Dad and mom both were teachers, and Dad was always working on the farm.  He built 2 chicken houses when I was young, and I didn't even realize until I was a teenager that most peoples' parents did not routinely work 12 hours a day.  Dad would be on the farm long before we were awake each morning, and straight to work right after school.  Mom managed to work all day, still preparing meals for us, packing our lunches.  Dinner time, Dad would come in and it was family time for the rest of the evening.  What I didn't realize was that they had taken on quite a bit of debt to build the chicken houses, our house etc.  and they were plowing all the money into paying it off... by the time I was 10, they had knocked out all our debt.  This was cool for so many reasons.  In my formative years, we lived very frugally.  But- it was at an age, where I didn't know any different- all my clothes came from older cousins- which was great, because I adored them and loved wearing their clothes!  We spent holidays with family, celebrations were home cooked meals- celebrated all around the table together.  When my granddad turned 75 it was the biggest deal of my early life- because we surprised him by going OUT TO A RESTAURANT!  Then, I will never forget- sometime around 5th when it was time for back to school- Mom took me to the local store and asked me to pick out some clothes- clothes that I liked - NEW CLOTHES!  What was cool about it, was that I was at an age where I was just starting to be aware of appearance, etc... you know, just starting to care.  And I will never forget that day- because she let me pick out and buy what I wanted without even looking at the prices.  I thought, wow We must be RICH!! And we kind of were- at that point they had payed all debts and had a great income.  From that time forward, the purse strings lifted quite a bit- we continued to live the same way, but with more of a sense of "Anything is possible." 

The life lessons learned from my family have just been amazing.... due to their teaching and support, I have never "worried" about money, and have been able live a fairly unconventional life.  I have always felt "rich" even when having very little money.  I think from observing their success, I knew what worked- it helped me "believe" in the formula-

So thankful...